Falkenheim, Nobart

  I took long breaths to calm myself. Even the air filling my lungs felt grating.

  When the panic subsided, I mentally clicked on the blinking green icon.

  A window appeared:

  Warning bells rang in my mind. I was beginning to suspect that God, or whoever He was, was using these rewards to position or prepare me for something. Without the strength blessing, I would have been dead at the hands of the idiots who stabbed me, which meant I was likely going to need enhanced perception at some point. His every reward was followed by trouble of some sort, or maybe I was reading too much into the situation.

  Still, it would be ungrateful of me to not be thankful for the gifts. If only they weren’t accompanied by so much pain.

  “I’m okay,” I hissed to my companions, who were holding me up.

  I opened my eyes a bit, but even the sliver of the view was blinding, forcing me to close them again. Poor Reshma was babbling incoherently.

  “I will be fine,” I hissed. “Just take me back to bed.”

  My escort tried to be inconspicuous as they led me back into the castle, but I could feel eyes following us.

  “Don’t call for the healer,” I told them.

  “What?” Reshma asked, still hysterical.

  I winced in pain. “Whisper, please. It’s something beyond any healer. I should be fine, soon.”

  “No! I’m taking you to him,” she hissed.

  “Remember my healing?” I pointed a finger to the sky.

  She must’ve gotten the message as she kept silent. My guards from Chadom also knew when to keep their mouth shut.

  Fending off questions, my companions took me to my chambers, where Reshma helped me slip into the sheets. Even though they were made of silk, they felt like rough homespun wool at the moment. I refused to remove my clothes and feel any new sensations.

  “I really don’t need to call the healer?” she asked.

  “No. Just give me some time. And keep others away. I’m not sick; I just need rest.”

  “All right.” She didn’t sound convinced, but acceded.

  The next morning, I woke up with a slight headache.

  I hesitantly opened my eyes a sliver. The light filtering from the glass windows saturated my eyesight, but at least it didn’t feel like needles stabbing into them a thousand times a second like yesterday. As my eyes adjusted to the light, I noticed the motes of dust illuminated by the yellow shafts of dawn. Then I noticed they looked far clearer than they should.

  Every surface, be it the walls or the polished wood, now had texture. Well, it always had, but I didn’t use to notice it. Now I did, and it came with a headache.

  “You better have given me a brain capable of handling all this,” I said to the ceiling.

  Bird song reached my ears, even though the windows and the door to the private balcony were still closed.

  Sheets whispered behind me.

  Reshma lifted her head, her silky smooth hair, black as night, falling everywhere. She had slept in the same clothes she had been wearing the day before.

  My heart skipped a beat.

  It was if I was seeing her for the first time. Her flawless dusky skin, wide lips and deep brown eyes surrounded by thick lashes took my breath away. I could feel the quickening contractions of my heart and the blood surging into my arteries.

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  “Good morning,” she whispered.

  “Good morning,” I said, seeking her lips.

  Our lips met briefly. The touch was electric, and my eel almost cried out.

  “What happened?” she asked, eyes wide in response to my reaction.

  I opened up my status again.

  “Enhanced perception,” I muttered.

  “What?”

  “I received a divine boon for ensuring the Cha’s long term survival. My senses are now much more perceptive, and very sensitive right now. If they don’t calm down, I’m going to be in so much trouble.”

  Her eyes widened. “Does that mean the Cha’s religion is the true one?”

  “I don’t know. I’m not sure if ‘He’ is even the one God many pray to or not.”

  She looked actually distressed, chest heaving.

  “If He cared so much about being worshiped, He would have told me. You’ll be fine,” I whispered, kissing her neck.

  My nose flared. The warmth of her skin, mixed with remnants of her perfume, was intoxicating. My loins stirred in response. I couldn’t help but ground them against her.

  “You’re horny right now?” she asked in disbelief.

  “You smell very nice.”

  “Are you-”

  “You’ll be fine, honey. If it turns out you’re wrong, I’ll even fight Him to save you. Just let go of everything. I need you, badly.” I was ready to beg. Sliding an arm around her waist, I pulled her into myself.

  Exhaling in surrender, she turned to face me.

  “You scared the hell out of me yesterday. Don’t ever do that.”

  “I’ll try my best, but where’s the fun in a boring life,” I said, grabbing the back of her neck. We drew close, then dove into each other. It felt as if I was kissing for the first time, minus the awkwardness.

  Reshma let go of herself, getting more aggressive. The moment her hand landed on my crotch, my body lost control of itself and I ended up making a .

  “What happened?” she asked, breathless.

  “Fuck,” I whispered. “I’m very sensitive right now.”

  A mischievous grin spread on her beautiful face. “We’ll have to remedy that, won’t we?”

  Biting her lower lip, she threw the sheets off me and began sliding down my body, when a knock on the door interrupted us.

  “Who is it?” I asked with more heat in my voice than I had intended.

  “Jack?” Lady Erenna’s concerned voice came from the other side. “Are you all right?”

  “Yes,” I said, adjusting my trousers.

  Reshma got up, adjusted her clothes and opened the door.

  Lady Erenna entered the room, her eyes immediately fixed on me.

  “Are you truly fine?” she asked hesitantly. The poor woman was in genuine distress.

  “I am.”

  “Why did you refuse to see a healer?”

  “Because he couldn’t have done anything. The source of my troubles wasn’t physical.” I pointed to the sky.

  She stared at me, dumbfounded. Apparently she hadn’t believed Reshma’s words.

  “A punishment?” she asked, breath hitched.

  “No. A reward, actually. I will be fine.”

  “You- you can call me mother if you want,” she said, not meeting my eyes.

  “Why the change of heart?”

  Her shoulders drooped. “You’re all that’s left of my son. Your plans are very risky, but I can see that you care about the county and its people. What more could I ask for?”

  “Thank you.”

  “Try not to place yourself in danger all the time, or my hair will turn gray before I am a grandmother.”

  My gaze flicked to Reshma.

  Before I could tell Lady Erenna we were doing our best to make her wish come true, my dusky beauty sent a threatening glare my way.

  The older woman seemed to have sensed the mood, as a faint smirk appeared on her face. “Everyone was worried about you. I’ll let them know you are fine.”

  Back at the door, she turned to face us. “I’ll make sure no one disturbs you. I would like to have at least three, no, four grandchildren. Soon.”

  She closed the door with a careful thud.

  The deep blush covering Reshma’s face had turned it dark.

  “C’mere!” I pulled her by the hand onto myself.

  She fell on my lap without resisting.

  I slowly unwrapped her, kissing every inch of skin that was exposed, eliciting delicious sighs.

  Sadly, removing my own clothes was a lot less pleasant. It felt like scraping raw wounds.

  Sensing my discomfort, Reshma pushed me down and began kissing my torso.

  Her touch was enough to get me hard again.

  Caressing my length in her slender hands, she began kissing it tenderly. Every touch of those full lips made it throb like a giant vein. It took every ounce of my will to not release my load again.

  Her tongue skillfully flicked around the head, teasing me. Her lips had just parted around my head when I again lost control, painting her face.

  “Damn it.”

  After cleaning up her face, she came to lay by my side. “It’s okay. We’ll get you back in shape.”

  “Thank you,” I said, kissing her brow.

  I got up after a few minutes. “Let me try something.”

  She was confused until I pulled her by the legs and set myself up between them.

  Turns out that tactile sensitivity had some positive side-effects as well.

  The shuddering of her insides, and the way she drew breaths told me much more than they used to. I adjusted my technique to her responses.

  She was soon a mess of whimpers, clutching the sheets like a lifeline.

  “How are you so good at it?” she said, her thighs trembling around me, breath shuddering from her second orgasm in minutes.

  I raised my head. “I wasn’t good before?”

  “You were, but now it’s as if you know exactly what to do and when to do it. Nobody is that good.”

  A smirk split my face.

  Internally, I sighed. I doubt He gave me this gift just for having fun.

  Some time later, we lay on the bed, chests heaving.

  “I know how to stop Zoran,” she said from my chest, lips curved up.

  “How?”

  “We just need to sneak you in, where you can seduce the wives of all the high-ranking noblemen, then have them betray their husbands.”

  I smiled. “I know you’re joking, but honestly it’s not a terrible idea.”

  She raised her head. “You’re considering it?”

  “I think the Zoranians are doing something similar. How else have they conquered so many realms this quickly? Weapons, unless they are significantly more powerful, cannot easily topple entire realms. Even then, you’re left with ruins that have to be rebuilt. The best method is to destroy the enemy from within. That makes for easy victory.”

  “No,” her voice came out flat and serious.

  “Why not?”

  “No. You cannot risk your life like that. You said you can improve our civilization by leaps and bounds. You cannot risk all that knowledge falling in enemy hands,” she said, visibly distressed.

  Her breathing had become ragged and her pupils were as big as they could be. There was more to it.

  I cupped her face. “What is it?”

  “Jack,” she said, licking her lips. “All of that is secondary. I- I couldn’t bear the idea of you in such danger. I think- I think I love you.”

  Swallowing the lump in my throat, I pulled her in closer and kissed her.

  My heart beat inside my chest frantically like a caged animal. One thing I was sure of; my feelings for the woman kissing me were genuine. Confessing them meant exposing myself to more pain and hurt. But she had already seen most of me. I didn’t mind sharing the rest.

  Having a child with Reshma, the refugee Princess of Sindhu, would cause tensions with the realm twice the size of Nanon if they found out about her identity.

  But, I couldn’t bear the idea of separating from her, ever.

  Was I willing to take the risk of going against a whole realm for one woman?

  If she had a boy, no words would satisfy them.

  I would be risking so much.

  Her fingers dug into my arms, holding onto me as if I might disappear.

  I made my decision.

  Yes.

  I would do anything for my flirty girl.

  “I think,” I said slowly, voice rougher than I intended, “I love you too.”

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